The U.K. Office of Foreign Sanctions Implementation provided an overview of "red flags" that may indicate when Russian oil shipments have been "manipulated to appear as non-Russian through the use of fabricated or falsified certificates of origin." The guidance also lays out "potential mitigation measures" to help British entities shield themselves from the practice.
The transfer of certain customs issues from the EU Court of Justice to the EU General Court "could lead to faster and more specialized decisions," lawyers at Baker McKenzie said in a client alert earlier this month. Partner Arnoud Willems and associate Line Hammoud said the change potentially could make it easier for companies to "bring cases and achieve favorable outcomes."
The EU should impose more sanctions against the owners and operators of vessels in Russia’s shadow fleet along with the banks and insurance companies they’re using, EU Parliament members said in a resolution adopted Nov. 14.
The U.K. extended antidumping duties on steel ropes and cables from China, including on ropes and cables consigned from Morocco and South Korea, for another five years, until April 21, 2028. The duties range from 0% for Moroccan exporter Remer Maroc and certain South Korean exporters to 60.4% for all Chinese exporters and all other Moroccan and South Korean exporters. The duties specifically cover "steel ropes and cables including locked coil ropes, excluding ropes and cables of stainless steel, with a maximum cross-sectional dimension exceeding 3mm."
Recent meetings with American lawmakers during a visit to the U.S. gave the impression there is strong bipartisan support for maintaining the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council, a European Parliament member said Nov. 13.
The U.K.’s Export Control Joint Unit last week published a list of export-controlled goods, software and technology for which the exporter still must use SPIRE, the country’s outgoing licensing system, to apply for a license. The country plans to retire SPIRE, or the Shared Primary Information Resource Environment, and replace it with its new digital export licensing system, Licensing for International Trade (LITE), in the coming months (see 2409190037), but applications for certain sensitive items still must go through SPIRE (see 2409250022). The list, included in a new table of "control list entries," includes certain genetically modified organisms, items related to capital punishment and torture, certain radioactive items, and more.
European collaboration with the U.S. on trade-related policies and other issues likely will become more difficult when President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House in January, a former Swedish government official said Nov. 7.
The U.K.’s trade agency issued a new report this week about the economic impacts of outbound investments by British firms. The report comes days after the U.S. issued a final rule to create a new regime to block certain outbound investments in China (see 2410280043) and as the EU considers creating its own outbound investment restrictions (see 2407250013). The U.K. report doesn't focus on the possibility of those restrictions but said an “envisaged restrictive regulatory action such as investment screening could alter the effects of UK” outbound investment “in the future.”
The U.K. recently fined four exporters more than $2 million combined for breaching the country’s export controls, including one for violating trade restrictions against Russia, the country announced Nov. 4.
The European Commission last month announced it will begin approving imports of two genetically engineered corn crops and renewed the authorization for one corn crop and one cotton crop, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a recent report. The crops, which are authorized for food and animal feed, will be valid for import for 10 years, USDA said, and will be subject to the EU's “strict labeling and traceability rules.” USDA said this is the EU’s third group of genetically engineered crop approvals this year.